Mandolin slicers are used for slicing food items into slices. A typical mandolin slicer comprises a handle, a frame, a slicing plate fixed within the frame and a guiding plate pivotally held within the frame, one edge of the slicing plate being configured as a sharp slicing blade. The slicing blade of the slicing plate is positioned with a gap formed between the slicing blade and the end of the guiding plate. The sliced items pass through the gap between the slicing blade and the end of the guiding plate. Therefore, the width of the gap determines the thickness of the sliced items. A cutting plate can additionally be provided with variable cutting teeth mounted thereon to achieve variable slicing patterns such as strips.
A lot of conventional mandolin slicers are configured to adjust vertically the gap between the slicing blade and the end of the handle by, for example, an adjustment knob to provide variable slice thicknesses of the food item to be sliced. Such mandolin slicers usually require the user to rotate the adjustment knob arranged on the handle to adjust the slice thickness, which generally requires using both hands to do it. Another drawback of the adjustable mandolin slicers is that no indication of the width of the variable gap is provided, making it difficult for the user to know the slice thickness before the item is sliced.
Therefore, there is a need for a mandolin slicer which can be easily and conveniently adjusted to slice items into slices of variable thicknesses and variable slicing patterns, and which provides a clear indication of the slice thickness and shape to be selected.